1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid detergent composition containing a zeolite builder stably dispersed therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, liquid detergents and powder detergents are employed as the detergent for clothing. Liquid detergents have excellent properties such that they can be easily measured during usage, they can be directly coated on contaminated portions of clothing for washing, and that they will not "fly up" like powder detergents and cause problems such as choking, etc.
On the other hand, liquid detergents have a problem in that the system is liable to become nonuniform because of the occurrence of phase separation, etc.
For example, when a strong electrolyte such as sodium carbonate or sodium silicate is added as an alkali builder, a liquid detergent, different from a granular detergent, will suffer from separation of the surfactant by a salting out from the system, and to prevent this, an organic alkali such as alkaolamine is primarily employed.
In granular detergents, as the Ca ion capturing builder, zeolites are now used to solve the problem of a eutrophication of phosphates in closed water regions, but such zeolites are water-insoluble solids and will be sedimented when added to liquid detergents, and thus are difficult to formulate into a stable dispersion.
Further, as the Ca ion capturing builder, organic builders such as acrylic acid derivatives or citric acid can be used, but when added to liquid detergents in an amount required to exhibit a sufficient effect, problems arise such that the viscosity of the system is increased and that the system suffers from phase separation.
Nevertheless, to obtain a strong washing power, a Ca ion capturing builder must be added, and accordingly, attempts have been made to stably disperse zeolites, which are also lower in cost, into a liquid. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 58-145794, it is intended to form liquid crystals by an addition of an electrolyte to an aqueous surfactant solution, to thereby stabilize the dispersion of solid particles such as zeolite, etc. But in such a dispersion system, because the surfactant is salted out, the viscosity of the system will become markedly higher, and thus the useability thereof is poor.